Pages

Sunday, 1 April 2018

Ghost in your coffee

Have you ever drank so much coffee that you are sure that you saw a ghost, or even something else, that wasn't there?

Some time ago, Radio 1 news reported that research done by Durham University stated that you may have a chance of hallucinations if you drink seven or more cups of coffee a day.

Of course when I heard this I got in touch with a friend about conducting our own test to see if this theory held water.

We both agreed that throughout the day we would drink more than seven cups of coffee to see what the effects were, I think my friend, Tony must have drank the equivalent of eight cups of coffee and I drank about the same.

By 3:30 we met to see how we were feeling, and the result was no difference in our psychological feelings, neither of us could report any changes in our vision and no hallucinations.

When I got home, once I had done a few jobs around the house I tried to find the news report on this theory before starting to make this post, what I did find was this little gem from the NHS.co.uk website.

Coffee 'wakes the dead'Is there a ghost in your morning roast?

“Too much coffee can make you hallucinate and sense dead people,” says the Daily Express. This bizarre claim is based on research into 219 students who answered questionnaires on caffeine intake, hallucinations and feelings of persecution. Various other news sources have reported the study, including the Daily Mail, which says that “drinking cup after cup of coffee dramatically increases the risk of hallucinating”.

The study itself was investigating a theory that caffeine might heighten the body’s response to a hormone released during times of stress. Researchers found that caffeine intake was linked to both stress and being prone to hallucinating. When results were adjusted to discount stress levels, caffeine intake alone predicted tendencies towards hallucination.Source

I can confirm that after eight cups of strong black coffee I have not sensed anything otherworldly and have not seen any ghosts.

Of course with this new information coming to light from NHS.co.uk/news we will need to look further into this and of course our findings on this matter will be reported as soon as possible.

I origin wrote this post about 9 years ago and can confirm that I still have not seen any ghosts or had any hallucinations which have been brought on by drinking too much coffee. These days I try to limit my caffeine intake to around one or two cups a day.

So come on, your turn. Have you ever drank so much coffee that you were convinced that you saw or even heard something that wasn't there?